On Tuesday, July 12 I will reach a marijuana review milestone. Having pen & published 150 marijuana reviews. That includes marijuana photo galleries too. The last two reviews published, Cindy Bubbles and DJ Short’s Blueberry were donation from cannabis growers I know. From their personal head stash. Review 150 is another personal grower donation. Their samples were awesome. l am developing an excellent nug network of people who want to show off their efforts. Always looking for more. You can send your product to be reviewed to 1161 St. Clair Ave West, Toronto, ON, M6E 1B2.
I always write my reviews under the influence of the marijuana being reviewed. Usually rocking out on Blip to get the beat of my words down. If I had it together I would return to my original career as a music critic and do cannabis and album reviews. Rock out to a album to be reviewed while vaporizing marijuana also being reviewed. My influence is to take a music critic approach to my weed reviews. With a bit of food critic thrown in. Note, the music critic is sent everything. Developing a pallet takes time. Publicists pester professional critics (not food ones), offer dinners, passes and the like to curry favor. If weed arrived around here at the pace music, movies and other culture sent to alt-weeklies like NOW I’d have to hire a staff.
It’s more difficult to be critical with weed because it’s generally all very, very, good. The people handing me buds are proud of their homegrown grass. They want to show someone who will appreciate it by photographing and blogging their senses. In other words I’m getting cream.
Rarely am I afforded an opportunity to review the same strain twice. I’ve had a few strains several times now. Especially my favorite Jean Guy. I can even identify her.
Then exactly what are we judging? The grower, the genetics or the bud. Or combination of all three. I believe all of the above. Some weed is well grown, but doesn’t do diddly for my health condition or have a solid marijuana high. Then there’s weed that works for me and isn’t well grown. Flush your plants! Breeders do produce strains that do just suck Cartman’s balls.
Marijuana grown by two different people will produce different results. Based on skill level, nutrients and soil. Presuming both received equal genetics. One growers seed maybe fresh and vibrant while another receives old tired beans.
A goal we have is to hold a grower competition involving the same strain. Everyone picks up their clone on the same day and returns 90 later with finished result. With the clone producer not allowed to compete as they grew the mother plant.

This has to be the most complete list of slang terms on the planet. Figured it was worth sharing. Thanks again hailmaryjane.com:

The Office of National Drug Policy has a few slang and colloquial terms for marijuana I was unfamiliar with. As a weed blogger, this is inexcusable, but I’m notoriously uncreative, plus I’m not prowling the streets for junk schwag in NYC (delivery for life!). Find out every slang word ever uttered about marijuana from “A-Bomb” to “Zoom,” and other terms you had no idea our government was using to describe weed, pot, nugget, sticky icky, marijuana or…Jeesh they’re ridiculous. Peep them after the jump and impress your friends with “dope” new slang.

Even though marijuana (read: cannabis sativa or cannabis indica) is, according the US Justice Department, “one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man”, it still remains illegal. That’s why there’s precious little facts scientists know about the plant and the substances the plant produces. What we do know however, is that Cannabis is an extremely complex plant that’s divided up into three species, two of which are psychoactive and one (cannabis ruderalis), which isn’t.

Now Let’s start with Cannabis indica

To be clear, both Cannabis indica and Cannabis sativa are annual plants in the Cannabaceae family. Cannabis indica is a putative species of the genus Cannabis. The strain probably originated from the Hindu Kush mountain range in central Afghanistan, which is known for extraordinarily frigid winters and searing hot summers. This gives the plant a short, dense look, oftentimes with broad, forest green colored fan leaves. The leaves darker color is due to their higher amounts of chlorophyll. The flowers (or ‘buds’) are generally heavy and fragrant and they tend to grow in pod clusters. Indicas are the faster growing varietal, typically with flowering times between 6 to 9 weeks. Even though the indica plants are smaller, their denser nugs usually yield higher amounts than sativas, plus they lend themselves to indoor growing better since the plants don’t get as tall as the sativas.

Effects of a good Cannabis indica

Indica is typically the variety most associated with being ‘stoned’, eg sitting on the couch, deep feeling of relaxation behind your eyes, loosening of your limbs and muscles. Your physicals senses are typically heightened such that listening to music, eating food or touching different textures feels incredibly rewarding. Indicas are great for relaxation due to their higher CBD and CBN levels than sativas (although some indicas also contain large amounts of THC as well). Some of the most potent medical marijuana for body pain, anxiety and appetite loss come from Cannabis indica, including Master Kush, G-13, Bubba Kush and others.

Cannabis sativa, I knew her well

If Cannabis indica is Ernie, than Cannabis sativa is Bert. Cannabis sativa tends to grow tall and thin, with smaller leaves that are brighter in color. In fact, a Cannabis sativa plant can grow up to 25 feet or higher in a single year! Most sativas grow in the 8ft -12ft range and originate from Mexico, Thailand and Colombia. Since they grow taller and use less chlorophyll, flowering can take between 10 to 16 weeks. The yield on a Cannabis sativa plant is typically lower than the indica, but on the flip side the buds are usually more potent and THC more concentrated. The fruity, sweet marijuana strains are almost always sativas.

Effects of a good Cannabis sativa

Cannabis sativas have higher THC content than most indicas and producing more of a ‘head high’. Typically, the effects of a good sativa are a soaring head high, almost like a rush, followed by an energetic feeling that stimulates brain activity and heightening senses. Sativas can be great for depression. Some examples of popular sativa medical marijuana strains are Green Crack, Blue Dream and Super Lemon haze (and pretty any other Haze).

Now of course one plant may exhibit qualities that are germane to both sativa and indica. This plant is typically known as a ‘hybrid’ and very often hybrid strains can be bred to cultivate the best qualities of the sativa and the best qualities of the indica in one super plant. OG Kush is an example of an excellent hybrid strain, so is Super Silver Haze. In fact, most plants are hybrids and very few growers will claim their plants are ’100% sativa’ or ’100% indica’ with any real authority. Although the Dr. Grinsppon strain (named after Harvard author and activist Dr. Lester Grinspoon) found at Barney’s in Amsterdam may just be an exception to this rule, as it exhibits extremely prototypical sativa traits, such as barley even flowering.

Let’s face it, being the person who sits behind a counter weighing out ganja all day long might not seem like hardest job in the world, and there are plenty of people who would take that gig just for the leftover shake at the end of the day. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t work. I spoke with a few budtenders around town and merged their responses into this list:

​1. You reach into every jar with your grubby little hands.

See those big metal tongs on the counter? Use them. Nobody wants to smoke whatever nastiness may be on your hands, nor do they want the crystals that should be on their herb stuck to your fingers.

​2. You are a know-it-all.

Budtenders like seeing different kinds of herb, and if you’ve got something worthwhile, then by all means bust it out. But condescending, my-pot-is-better-than-yours attitudes get old quick. If your friend has better chronic, go get it from him instead of bad-mouthing our product. Our Diesel isn’t as good as your caregiver’s? Go get a bag from him. You’ve seen better hash at another shop? Great, go buy it there. Odds are it isn’t, and that’s why you are in the shop. Also, budtenders say they’re noticing patients complaining about herb not being dense enough. Too bad if you don’t know what a good, stringy sativa looks like — but rest assured that a gram of plant matter is a gram of plant matter, regardless of the density.

​3. The line behind you isn’t getting any shorter.

Budtenders are all about helping you with your wellness needs, and have no problem taking an hour to do so even if there are patients behind you. And yeah, a lot of the time they’re sitting around with nothing else to do but listen to you. But when there’s a line, how about hurrying things up? They don’t need to hear about your shitty job, your weekend plans, or your cat’s birthday party.

​*Sidenote: one of the female budtenders I spoke with said her major pet peeve is being hit on. Guys, even though it’s called a “bar,” it really isn’t one. Leave your pick-up lines at home.

​4. You only come in for the freebies/You ask for the “hook-up.”

For a budtender, there’s nothing worse than barely getting through an introduction when a patient starts asking about what freebies the dispensary is offering. If you are a first-time patient, you’ll likely get a little bonus in your bag — but let them at least get through the spiel of what they have to offer. A dispensary has set prices and weights for a reason: This is an actual business with an actual business plan, not some dude selling pot out of his basement.

​5. You hang around the shop.

Budtenders realize that they’ve created a cool spot and they know how easy it is to get sucked into the glossy pictures of High Times on the waiting-room table — but go home. They put in the leather couches so that people waiting in line would have a comfortable spot to chill, not so you’d have a place to nap for a few hours in the middle of the day. To quote Seinfeld, “I already have enough friends.”

When I was younger I assumed that drunks and stoners must inherently hate each other, at least philosophically. Really my silliest assumption was that anyone only did one or the other. Every stoner I know loves beer, and every drunk I know gets excited when someone busts out a joint. Only jerkoffs are purist. Nonetheless, booze and weed are different beasts and there are strengths and weakness to each.

Endurance: Being drunk all day can be awesome, but it’s a plan rife with potential disaster that can lead to puking and gross errors in judgment. Whereas any wake’n’bake fan will tell you, all it takes to be stoned from sunup to sundown is the desire to do so and an appropriate supply.
win: weed

Party: When I was in Amsterdam the thing that struck me most about the “coffee shops” wasn’t that I could legally buy weed (I live in California after all), but how quiet the places were. People chat softly or just sit in a daze. You can’t really have a “crazy” stoner party. There are no weed keggers. Get a room of people stoned and you’ll probably all end up playing video games or watching a (bad) movie.

win: booze

Sports: A bit of alcohol dulls your inhibitions, which can actually improve your reaction timing. Of course that all goes out the window once you get shitfaced. But everything from softball to bowling is more fun with beer. Weed doesn’t make you worse at sports so much as it makes you not want to do them; touch football out, Madden on the PS3 in.

win: booze

Conversation: Drunks speak a language only other drunks can understand, and stoners tend to prattle meanderingly like nursing home inhabitants. Talking to either while you’re sober is awful.

win: neither

Chores: Painting or building IKEA crap seems like a great time to throw back some booze. Yes, it’ll make the process more fun, but your work will likely turn out embarrassing once you sober up. Getting high can greatly improve boring tasks like laundry and vacuuming, with little-to-no effect on your skill level. Though you are prone to dumbass gaffes like leaving your clothes in the drier all day.

win: weed

Sex: Sex is great both drunk and high. Drunk sex is wild; involving positions you’re not sure how you knew and on top of things that aren’t your bed. Stoned sex is hippie sex; slow and full of childlike wonderment. “Wow, this is great!” I’ve actually said out loud before during stoned sex.

win: both

A tie! More research is necessary. Who has some kush? I’ll bring the Scotch.

This isn’t an article about mixing the effects of drinking wine and smoking weed. Which can be an experience anywhere between nausea and euphoria, but that really is a discussion for another time. Doctors are announcing with some restraint that moderate use of marijuana and red wine combined fight Alzheimer’s Disease and promote brain health.

Cannabis has recently garnered a lot of attention from scientists because of the recognition of endocannabinoids. This new neuro-transmitter affects our brain in a unique way that seems built perfectly for us.

Endocannabinoids regulate and lower wear and tear in our cognitive system. The results are showing us that the reduction in short term memory is actually due to a reduction in sometimes harmful inflammation in the brain.

Polyphenol antioxidants, a chemical substance naturally found in red wine, prohibits toxic plaque build up in the brain that destroys cells. These substances, also called tannins in red wine, are good for the reduction of cognitive deterioration.

In other words wine also acts to lower the wear and tear in our brains. It’s antioxidants allow for increased flow of toxins out of the brain.

Working together these effects actually give our brain an overall boost. Just like reading this article. And again we’re not advocating use of both simultaneously. This information does however point to the benefits of using both moderately.